We rely on your support to help us keep producing beautiful, free, and unrestricted editions of literature for the digital age. Will you support our efforts with a donation ? The Mysterious Affair at Styles isn't just Agatha Christie's first Poirot novel, it was the only Poirot novel in the public domain until 2019. It was written on a bet that Christie couldn't write a detective novel in which the reader couldn't deduce the criminal. Her attempt laid the foundation for one of literature's most famous detectives. In this novel we're introduced to Poirot as he's settling in to a new life in England. After a woman is murdered at the country estate he's visiting, he has to use his detective skills to catch the criminal. The Mysterious Affair at Styles sets the stage for the Golden Age of Detective Fiction, and has everything you'd expect from a story rich in those classic detective fiction tropes. Agatha Christie (died 1976) was a significant literary figure of the 20th century. Their work has endured across generations and continues to be read and studied worldwide. As a work of classic literary fiction, The Mysterious Affair At Styles exemplifies the narrative craft and social insight that defined great storytelling of its era. Literary fiction of this period was characterized by careful attention to character psychology, social milieu, and the moral questions that animated public discourse.